collaborative working

Meaning

1. 1noununcountablebusiness

   A way of working in which different people or organizations share tasks and goals to achieve a common result.

   Grammar: Uncountable: collaborative working improves results.

   Patterns

   • collaborative working between groups

   Collaborative working between doctors and nurses improved patient care.

   The school encourages collaborative working across departments.

   Good collaborative working saves time and avoids repeated work.

Common combinations

encourage collaborative working

The manager encourages collaborative working.

collaborative working between teams

Collaborative working between teams solved the issue.

promote collaborative working

The project promotes collaborative working.

effective collaborative working

Effective collaborative working needs trust.

Synonyms and how they differ

teamwork

Teamwork is a more everyday word and usually refers to one group, while collaborative working often crosses organizations.

cooperation

Cooperation can be passive agreement, while collaborative working means actively sharing the work.

joint working

Joint working is a British public-sector term meaning nearly the same.

Opposites

Word family

collaborate verb

to work with others

collaboration noun

the act of working together

collaborator noun

a person who works with others

collaboratively adverb

in a shared way

Commonly confused: collaborative working or competitive working?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “collaborative working”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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